About Us

We are Kaiao and Amanda, 28 and 29 years old (respectively) and are about to embark on an adventure of a lifetime. We both graduated college with engineering degrees, spent the last 5 years working and decided we needed a break from the office.

In March 2014, we took a 3800 mile road trip around the country to visit family and friends. While planning this trip we were also searching online for a sailboat. We were looking for a steel hull boat between 30' - 44' and had our eyes on a few boats, one in Canada and the other in Seattle (finding a steel hull boat is not an easy task considering the majority of boats are fiberglass). While searching, we found a boat coincidentally located along our road trip route in Wilmington, NC. The boat was exactly what we wanted, so we purchased it.

Our boat is a 34' Saugeen Witch steel ketch, designed by Thomas Colvin, and launched in 1978. Her original name was Amicus, but we wanted to name her something that has a meaning to us. We named her Makai, a Hawaiian word meaning "Toward the Ocean."